


The Present is All You Have

by Lyl



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen, I Don't Even Know, Stranded, multiverse 5000, vala is a badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 11:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyl/pseuds/Lyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What part of 'not interested' is beyond your comprehension?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Present is All You Have

**Author's Note:**

> I read 1 book for the sole purpose of writing this crossover. That's a pre-warning, btw. :)

Some things never changed, thought Vala Mal Doran as she watched the couple standing in front of her. Here she was, trying to enjoy a quiet drink on a quiet station in a private room where she could relax, and somebody wanted to talk business. 

It really was quite startling how much she'd changed in the past years, if business and profit were not at the top of her priority list. Then again, several years ago she'd been in her proper time and place, where she knew the rules and how to get around them.

“What part of 'not interested' is beyond your comprehension?” Vala asked in a bored tone, keeping her pose relaxed and uncaring while her eyes took in everything. So far, she wasn't too pleased with these people who had intruded into her few moments of privacy. Especially when one of them looked like an over-developed child, while the other looked like she would be perfectly happy to throw Vala into a small room with an open outer hatch.

“You're an information broker, and we need some information,” the woman said, crossing her arms. She looked like she was waiting for an excuse to beat the information out of her, but Vala had long ago learned how to avoid such confrontations. Usually. That time on Escobar didn't count.

“I've already told you - through your many and varied attempts at contact - that I was not interested in being involved in any part of this endeavour of yours.” Vala was trying to be polite and civil - Daniel had managed to ingrain that much into her before they were separated - but these people were trying her patience.

“How did you find me, by the way?” Vala inquired. 

“We put the word out some time ago that we were looking for you, and someone finally came through,” explained the man. He was significantly shorter than either Vala or the woman, but Vala was smart enough to know that he was also the most dangerous of the two. There was a reason she'd been avoiding this deal, and it was all tied to this man. Miles Naismith, Admiral and head of the Dendarii Mercenaries - or, rather, Lord Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar. 

Vala wasn't too pleased with what she was hearing, either. These people had been looking for her, probably for months, and most likely non-to-discreetly. It seemed her timetable for getting out of the game and disappearing completely had just moved up.

“Rack. That bloody bastard,” Vala cursed, thinking of the bar owner she'd spoken to yesterday. She'd mentioned she would be on Vega Station for the next few days, which he had apparently decided to shout to all and sundry. She would have to deal with him later; a few words in a few ears about the lack of discretion in his bar, and Rack would be out of business for good. If your clientele were made up entirely of the less-than-legal variety, a closed mouth and a faulty memory were prerequisites.

“We're willing to pay double,” said Vorkosigan, taking a seat across from her while his dark haired friend continued to try and stare Vala into submission. She didn't know what she could have possibly done to this woman, but as long as she didn't force Vala to shoot her, then it really didn't matter.

“You can pay triple or more for all I care. I'm still not interested,” she told him. Again. Whatever bit of information these people wanted, Vala didn't care. When she'd been suddenly stranded in the future, in a universe that had never heard of stargates, Vala had decided to do what she did best, but with the wisdom that only experience can give you. She tried to keep out of other people's schemes, rarely worked with a partner, avoided the larger crime syndicates (she'd barely made it out of Jackson's Whole still in full ownership of herself and her goods), but above all else, stay away from any and all planetary politics/espionage. No matter how well it paid, you always got burned at some point down the road.

“You've done business with Dendarii before,” Vorkosigan reminded her, and Vala pursed her lips in irritation. “Why not this time?”

“Because this time, it's not the Dendarii asking, is it?” she challenged him.

“What makes you say that?” asked the woman, whose name Vala still didn't have, not that she really cared.

“I know how information flows, and in the past six months, there have been more than a few disturbances in the force,” explained Vala, keeping the small twitch of her lips from turning into a smile. Teal'c really had done a number on her when introducing her to Earth culture. “But if you track it all back, everything leads to Barrayar. And then suddenly I get contacted by a representative of the Dendarii Mercenaries, wanting some particular piece of information - the same information that Barrayar's spies had been unable to obtain - and really, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the rest.”

“It could just be a coincidence,” said Vorkosigan, watching her carefully. “But if it was, you wouldn't have put so much effort into avoiding us.”

Vala raised an eyebrow in query as she took a sip of her now warm drink, and wondered if he was as smart as he was reputed to be. Figuring out the secret identity of Admiral Miles Naismith had really been too easy, and Vala often wondered how he hadn't become the best known secret in the galaxy. The only cover identity that was worse than his, was that whole Clark Kent/Superman thing that Cam had introduced her to. Honestly, a pair of glasses was not the best disguise.

Then again, Vala often wondered how Cameron had managed to stay alive as long as he had with that whole 'Cam Mitchell, Bounty Hunter' role he'd had going on for awhile. How SG-1 weren't known on every world, Vala had never quite figured out.

“I'm wondering if the reason you're so cagey is because we're not the only ones asking about this,” he continued, always watching.

Vala kept her gaze even and her face blank, and just blinked as the silence surrounded them.

“I don't get involved in interplanetary matters,” she said after a moment.

“You know what we're looking for,” said the woman, jumping on Vala's answer with all the grace of a newly born puppy.

“I don't get involved in interplanetary matters,” she repeated, but with more feeling, hoping he would take the hint and leave. Though, if he didn't, she certainly would.

“You know about the artifact,” said Vorkosigan, posing it as a question rather than a statement.

“Actually, I don't,” said Vala, and that was the truth. She didn't know what this artifact that Miles Vorkosigan was after, but she did know that at least five other planets were after the same thing. Whatever it was, it was big, it was dangerous, and it was very, very valuable. 

Vala wanted to stay as far away from it all as possible.

It really threw her sometimes to realize exactly how much she had changed since meeting Daniel and joining the SGC. Profit and gain didn't motivate her any more, beyond a means to an end. She had goals to achieve, and they didn't involve getting killed or thrown in jail for being in the middle of the wrong deal. She had a future she was aiming for, her current occupation merely a means to an end.

“This conversation is over,” Vala informed him when he looked like he was about to start in on another long sell. Getting up, she moved to the door, tilting her head slightly as the woman moved to block her way.

“Do you really want to get into this with me?” she asked softly, the threat carried over on her voice and in her eyes. She may be older than she liked to admit, but Vala was still in top form. Physically, she figured she could take this woman, but it would be bloody and loud and Vala couldn't guarantee getting out of it without having to kill someone, be it her, Vorkosigan, a civilian or station security.

The woman's eyes flicked to behind Vala's shoulder briefly before she backed down, which Vala took to mean Vorkosigan had given some signal to back off.

“I didn't want to have to do it this way,” announced Vorkosigan from behind her, sounding much more like the high Lord she knew he was.

“And what way would that be?” asked Vala, turning just enough to keep the two of them in her sight.

“A brief background on you didn't turn up much past five years ago, but that doesn't mean we can't find out more,” he said. “No one has their background cleaned as well as you do, unless they have something to hide. If we started scouring the known worlds for you ten years ago, what would we find? Or fifteen? What about twenty? What family and friends are you hiding that you want kept safe? What secrets do you want to keep buried?”

Vala watched him for a moment, and wondered if this was how he operated or just a spur of the moment ploy to get her help. It might have even worked, if this was her universe. Which it wasn't. Because six years ago, there hadn't been a Vala Mal Doran anywhere in this entire universe until she stumbled through a vanishing gate onto a mostly deserted world. He could interview every single person in the entire galaxy, and he still wouldn't find anyone who had known her ten years ago.

“You do that,” said Vala with a fake cheerfulness. “And if you happen to find anything, you come find me and let me know.”

Vala turned back to the door, daring the woman to try and block her exit again, when Vorkosigan spoke again.

“Don't you want to even see what you're 'not getting involved in'?” he asked.

Vala turned around to give him a piece of her mind, but the words stalled in her throat at the image shown on the hand held pointed in her direction.

A stargate. The stupid, bloody morons were looking for a stargate.

All at once, memories began to resurface, crowding in one after another. The fire fight with Ori soldiers on P4D-582; the retreat through the gate; the sudden flash of something weird in the wormhole; being thrown from the stargate on the other side, turning just in time to see it fade out of existence. She'd paid enough attention to Sam and Daniel that she knew about time travel through the stargate, but it had taken her another year to realize that it had also sent her to another universe, because no matter how much she searched, there were no stargates on any planets. Planets she knew like the back of her hand had never been subjugated by the Goa'uld, freed by the Jaffa or taken over by the Ori. There didn't even seem to be any record of a stargate at any time since before Earth's exploration into outer space.

She was trapped in this universe, with no way to get home.

Yet, there appeared to be a stargate somewhere, and everyone was searching for it.

“You know what it is,” said Vorkosigan, sounding surprised and pleased.

“I'm still not going to help you find it,” she said, hating that she hadn't been able to control her reaction better.

“We don't want to find one,” replied Vorkosigan, a slight frown crinkling his face. “We already have one - we just want to know what it is, what it does and how it works.”

Vala's brain was still trying to catch up, but one fact that was making itself well known, was that if Barrayar had a stargate and was searching for information about it, then all the other planets searching for information probably already had a stargate as well.

If they got them all working, it would change interplanetary travel in this galaxy.

She might also find a way home.

Making a quick decision, she pulled the hand held away from Vorkosigan and yanked out the stylo. A few quick strokes later, she passed it back to him.

“Contact me if your scientists figure out what that means, and then we'll talk. Maybe.”

Vala quickly turned and left the room, walking directly back to her ship. She managed to make it behind closed doors before the last shred of her control failed, leaving her an emotional mess on the floor outside her bedroom.

She felt like all the intervening years since being trapped here had been stripped away. Yet beyond the loneliness and pain and emptiness in her chest, there was a small flare of hope. She'd given Vorkosigan a clue, and hoped that one day she would hear from him.

A clue in the shape of a chevron, representing the only place she'd ever really felt at home.

Earth.


End file.
